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Archive for January, 2014

We hear a lot about building a strong “core” and for good reason. If your “core” muscles are strong it means your body is getting the support it needs to keep you moving through your busy life! Try this sequence of movements to help build that vital part. Do this group of movements slowly and with purpose. Focus on keeping the “core” muscle engaged- abdominals, obliques, glutes.

The Core Movements: Stone Table, Red Sea, Tent

Move through this sequence first opening up on the left side, then do the right side to keep things balanced and even. Try to master these three “Core” movements first, moving through smoothly and confidently. Once you have these down, add in some intensifiers for example:

1) Rather than beginning in Stone Table, begin the sequence in Standing at the top of your mat. Hinge…

I love the New Year. It’s so full of promise, so clean and fresh and…well, “new.” It’s as though the clock has restarted on everything. Hooray!

Gym memberships skyrocket, websites that deal in health and fitness show a rush of activity, resolutions abound! This is the year we’re finally gonna lose that 10 pounds, get in shape, get a better job, do all the laundry, clean under the refrigerator, become a better neighbor…

And then in mid February we start to feel the pressure of it all and maybe we realize that the “clean slate” of January 1st was not all that clean after all. The idea that we can completely start anew is replaced with the guilt of missing workouts, the cold weather weight gain, then the pressure of the lurking summertime starts to loom on the horizon. The clock is never really on our side, is it?

What matters is how we choose in the moment, not some great cosmic shift, not the reset button on the calendar, not the foreboding of “swim suit season.” This year I wonder if we can set goals that are driven by the small stuff, by the momentary good choice, by the hope of tiny shifts in our psyche toward good health.

Choose one thing, maybe it’s for a day or for a month but choose something. Always have something to choose; mindful eating, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, choosing the side salad instead of the fries. These are small things. They are “this time” things and they add up. There is no quick fix. You already know that. So, choose one thing.

I like to give homework at my classes…usually it’s something small but powerful; perhaps choose a position we’d done and focus on that for the week, perhaps consider something that came up during prayer. But for the New Year I have a longer bit of homework for you. I’ve given this before. I hope you’ll consider adding it in!

I would like to have you do this every single day.

PRAY

MOVE

WRITE

Do this every single morning, first thing. If you cannot do this first thing then look at your schedule. What do you need to sacrifice to make this happen? Consider making that sacrifice for one month.

Prayer, obviously is first. It can be as long or as short as you would like. In any case, focus your prayer NOT on petition but on PRAISE. Let your prayers be words of worship for the One who made you…